McConnell on Fox News: Senate Can Act on SCOTUS Nomination by Early Fall
‘We expect to get a nomination from the president rather soon. And we should be able to work our way through the confirmation process sometime before early fall. Hopefully in time for the new justice to begin the fall term of the Supreme Court.’
On the confirmation process for the president’s Supreme Court nominee:
“We expect to get a nomination from the president rather soon. And we should be able to work our way through the confirmation process sometime before early fall. Hopefully in time for the new justice to begin the fall term of the Supreme Court… the first Monday in October."
“We’re hoping there will be some Democratic support. Remember that Justice Gorsuch got at least three Senate Democrats who supported his confirmation. Those individuals are still in the Senate. We’re not assuming this is just going to be a straight party-line vote. I think there will be some Democrats who find the nominee attractive. We’ll have to see—we don’t have a nominee yet. It’s a lot easier to talk about it once you do.”
On the predictable attacks from the Left:
“Well it’s pretty obvious they’re ready to fight no matter who the nominee is. Look, the stakes are big.”
“[L]et me tell you what they want and the kind of people they put on the courts: Activist judges—what do we mean when we say an ‘activist judge’? Someone who acts like they were elected to the Congress to make policy. Justice Scalia, who was a towering figure on the Supreme Court right up there with Oliver Wendell Holmes in the annals of Supreme Court history in the United States, always used to say that you’re not a very good judge if occasionally you don’t reach a conclusion you don’t like. And the reason for that is the law requires it. The plain meaning of the law requires it, or the constitution requires it. And if you want to make policy you ought to run for office. So, the kind of people the president’s been sending up for the circuit courts, the nomination of Neil Gorsuch—these are people who don’t believe the job of a judge is to act like you’re a member of Congress. But rather, to interpret the law, which is clearly what the founding fathers clearly had in mind for the judicial branch.”
Related Issues: Judicial Nominations, Nominations, Senate Democrats, Supreme Court
Next Previous
